CONFIRMING THE CONCLUSION. As prefaced in the previous blog post on this subject BLOTTING PAPER The Comic: Production Report No.49, I have now completed the final stage of the writing and editing of my comic so that all six chapters can be compiled into the graphic novel format. This includes the previous three separate comics that made up The Cat Cooking Comics In Kappabashi No.1No.2and No.3 that were not initially going to form part of the BLOTTING PAPER comic. The title remains Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics and all six chapters will be made available on my Blog. Below is a photo from the original launch of this title back in 2012 at Hondarake Full Of Books bookshop in Sydney (see my blog report of that event No.11 ) and so now, eight years later the work is essentially finished, apart from any further tinkering with the content that I feel shall improve the overall completed work. Now here is a photo flashback to the original launch.
Product and packaging of the debut issue at the original launch at Hondarake Books.
The moment of the launch on a Saturday afternoon in Sydney.That’s comics scholar Gene Kannenberg, Jr. onscreen in a live cross from the USA launching the comic.The package deal, my comic with an original print and bookmark in a specially printed bag.A display of my postcard art was installed as a decorative corner in the bookshop.Some of my woodblock prints of fish from my animation TOXIC FISH were used as a decorative canopy over the launch.
It has taken me a little while to finish wrapping up production of this title but things are finally taking shape. The latest development in my comics creation and production scheduling is that two of my titles will now be merged. These two titles are my most recent project working title The Cat Cooking Comics In Kappabashi and my longer, earlier work Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics. The former, that took the form of some kind of sequel to the previous title, now becomes an additional chapter, actually the final chapter of the Blotting Paper graphic novel. My initial thoughts were to make it a stand-alone comic despite it having some connections to the main title by virtue of sharing some of the same characters. However, I have now opted for the overall closure of the long production period of Blotting Paper, the main title, and decided to wrap it all up in one bundle. This means that The Cat Cooking Comics In Kappabashi will cease being a proposed stand alone comic title and instead become a chapter title of the already established comic titled Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics. However, its associated Blog posts, three in total, that were completed with the different title of The Kappabashi Cat Nos. 1, 2 and 3 will remain as existing blog posts, retaining their original title and date and history, and accessibility on this site. I hope that’s clarified matters.
The above photograph shows a rough draft mock-up of the working title and cover design of the former proposed comic The Cat Cooking Comics In Kappabashi that is now being merged(see explanatory first paragraph above) with Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics as Chapter 6, the final chapter of the intended 300 page graphic novel. Although the Doctor Comics character does not appear in this chapter one of his cats, Cohl, does. Living in the Kappabashi area of Tokyo Cohl learns the Japanese form of woodblock printmaking called sosaku hanga, the same method that Doc had employed and demonstrated to his cats at their home in Sydney whilst making a series of creative prints. This edit wraps things up in terms of the story. In this final chapter of Blotting Paper Cohl becomes, as the title of that chapter infers, The Cat Cooking Comics In Kappabashi.Wherever he was at this time, I am certain the Doc would have been impressed.
A page from The Cat Cooking Comics In Kappabashi , now Chapter 6 of the graphic novel Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics.
Above, another page from Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics showing Doc at work making woodblock prints, an act that Cohl would have observed on several occasions back in Sydney when Doc and the cats lived together, and that would have possibly inspired Cohl to take up woodblock printmaking once he arrived in Japan.
Another page from Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics showing Cohl being impressed by examples of the the art of celebrated Japanese printmaker Shiko Munakatta that Cohl’s new Japanese friend Moto takes him to see…and below, another page from the same title showing Cohl’s visit to an art supply shop in the Asakusa area of Tokyo to purchase woodblock printmaking tools, again thanks to his knowledgeable art school friend Moto.
Yet another page from The Cat Cooking Comics In Kappabashi , now Chapter 6 of Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions of Doctor Comics, showing Cohl’s artistic development with his printmaking and his creative juxtapositioning and merging of his prints with panels and pages from randomly found manga during his travels in Tokyo.
I hope these alterations and edits of the original plan will bring these separate units harmoniously together under the one title of Blotting Paper: The Recollected Graphical Impressions Of Doctor Comics. It seems the best solution at the moment
Doctor Comics 